Although Fox News hasn’t touted the results so far on any of its shows, a poll by the ultra-conservative cable TV network found that the public views President Obama and the Internal Revenue Service more favorably than the Tea Party movement.

Measure would ban abortion as early as six weeks after conception

Ohio legislators today
reintroduced a bill that would ban abortions in the state as early as six weeks after
conception, even as questions remain about the proposal’s
constitutionality.

The bill has been dubbed the “heartbeat bill” because it prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

In the past, some of Ohio’s anti-abortion groups,
including Ohio Right to Life, raised concerns about the heartbeat bill
because they said it could lead to legal challenges that would endanger
the anti-abortion movement.

So far, Ohio Right to Life’s concerns might be proving true in North Dakota. A federal judge on July 22 blocked a similar law in that state after deeming it unconstitutional.

“The United States Supreme
Court has unequivocally said that no state may deprive a woman of the
choice to terminate her pregnancy at a point prior to viability,” wrote
U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland, who was appointed to the District of
North Dakota seat by former President George W. Bush in 2002.

Health experts generally agree viability is not reached until 24 weeks into the pregnancy.

When contacted earlier today, Ohio Right to Life said it’s not providing comment on the bill yet.

Abortion-rights advocates are already standing against the proposal,
which they call “the heartless bill” and an attack on women’s rights.

“Here we go again,” says Kellie Copeland, executive
director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio. “A month after Gov. Kasich signed one of the
worst anti-choice bills in the nation that is already closing abortion
facilities, you’ve got this group coming back and saying, ‘No, no, no,
that’s not good enough. You have to outlaw abortion before women even
know they’re pregnant.’ ”

Forty of 99 legislators in the Ohio House have signed onto the bill, according to The Associated Press.
The Ohio Senate majority caucus and Gov. John Kasich have so far
declined to comment on the bill when asked by various reporters.

In June, the Republican-controlled General Assembly and Kasich passed a two-year state budget
that imposes regulatory hurdles that make it more difficult
to get an abortion in Ohio and have already forced various abortion
clinics to shut down in Ohio.

During its eight years in power, the Bush-Cheney Administration was a big supporter of privatizing services that traditionally were performed by government. The ostensible purpose was to save taxpayer money, although it often seemed like the real reason was to enrich the cronies of George Bush and Dick Cheney, including companies like Halliburton.

It’s odd, then, that Cheney is turning to taxpayers for a special favor.

In this week’s Porkopolis column, which examines political fallout from the health care reform vote last month by U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Price Hill), we said Steve Chabot — Driehaus’ predecessor and current opponent — hadn’t done much during his 14 years in Washington to improve access to affordable health care.

It was “Rich People Voice Their Concerns Night” at city
councils across town last night, as proponents of the $1 sale of Music
Hall packed Cincinnati City Council chambers even though the proposed
lease deal wasn’t on the agenda. Mayor Mark Mallory insisted that any
middle ground that will allow the nonprofit Music Hall Revitalization
Co. to renovate the building will require that the city retain
ownership.

Across town (and about 10 miles northeast toward the area with mass trees), Madeira City Council shot down a plan to
develop a luxury apartment complex on Camargo Road. Council voted 6-1 to
scrap the plan for a 184-unit complex after residents who voiced
concern said the complex would be “too dense” and take away from the
city’s single-family character. Word on the street is that the Council
majority didn’t want scumbag renters like this guy to be able to move
into the neighborhood and start playing music really loud out of their car stereos.

Cincinnati City Council yesterday pretty much canceled its
plans to build an atrium at City Hall. Six council members approved a
motion asking administrators to shut it down, and City Manager
Milton Dohoney says he’ll abide by it even though he technically doesn’t
have to because the funding was approved in a spending ordinance.

Now that the Supreme Court has temporarily upheld part of Arizona’s racist
controversial immigration law, no-name state legislators in Ohio and
Kentucky plan to break out the laws they couldn’t previously get passed.
According to The Enquirer’s Mark Curnutte (who apparently won a
national book award for his work covering poverty in Haiti — big ups,
Curnutte!), some dudes named Courtney Combs (R-Ross Township, Ohio) and
John Schickel (R-Union, Ky.) have some great ways to rid of their states'
illegal immigrants, at least until the court strikes down the rest of
Arizona’s law.

The activist branch of a liberal telecommunications company
has filed a petition asking the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate
allegations that Murray Energy forced miners in Beallsville, Ohio to
attend a rally for Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.

CREDO Action Campaign Manager Josh Nelson told CityBeat that the group emailed the petition with 4,021 signatures to the Department of Labor Wednesday morning.

The petition reads: "Requiring employees to attend a Mitt
Romney political rally without pay is totally unacceptable. I urge you
to conduct a thorough investigation to determine whether Murray Energy
violated any federal laws on August 14th, and to hold it fully
accountable if it did."

Romney appeared at the event to attack what he called
President Barack Obama’s “war on coal.” He was flanked on stage by
hundreds of miners with soot-stained faces.

Dozens of those miners told WWVA-AM West Virginia talk
show host David Blomquist that they were pulled from the mine before
their shift was over and not paid for the full day of work. The miners,
who Blomquist did not identify, said they were told that attendance at
the rally was mandatory.

Murray Energy Chief Financial Officer Rob Moore told
Blomquist on his radio show that managers “communicated to our workforce
that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was
forced to attend.”

He said that people who did not show up to the event,
which organizers say drew 1,500 miners and family members, were not
penalized for their absence.

“Forcing Ohio workers to participate in a political rally
is unacceptable, so we're joining our friends at SEIU in calling on the
U.S. Department of Labor to conduct an investigation to determine
whether or not any federal laws were broken,” Nelson wrote in an email
to CREDO Action’s Ohio activists on Sept. 1.

A spokeswoman for the Labor Department was not immediately
able to confirm whether the department had received the petition or
planned to launch an investigation.

This post will be updated with comment from the Labor Department when it becomes available.

When it comes to debating policy issues, most people will tend to respect their opponents more if they at least use verifiable facts when making their arguments and not outlandish statements that are easily shredded.

Such is the case with Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou and his attacks on U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Westwood) over the recent "cap and trade" bill that seeks to limit carbon dioxide emissions.

Despite its founder’s insistence Thursday that reaction had been mostly favorable, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity abruptly reversed course today and is restoring funding for Planned Parenthood.

The Los Angeles Times reports Nancy G. Brinker, Komen's founder and CEO, said that the breast cancer foundation's decision to halt funding to providers who were under investigation was not done for political reasons and was not meant to penalize Planned Parenthood specifically.

City says a number of issues contributed to more than yearlong postponement

The $110 million streetcar project's opening is being delayed by more than a full year — from spring 2014 to summer 2015.

Meg Olberding, city spokesperson, attributes the delay to “a number of scheduling issues.”

“There’s so many moving pieces,” she says. “There are
issues with utility and we have to order the cars. We
have to get a contractor on-board for the work. So we still have a
couple of things that are taking longer than we thought.”

The delay, which was announced Sept. 10, is
the latest in a history of plan and schedule changes for the Cincinnati
streetcar, which saw $52 million pulled by Gov. John Kasich last year and forced
the city to abandon its Uptown connector lines. Kasich, who has been against other rail projects in the state, claimed the move was necessary to balance the 2012-2013 budget.

Today, a feud between
the city and Duke Energy is causing more trouble. The city and utility company disagree over
who should pay for moving utility lines to accommodate the
streetcar. On Aug. 29, the city said it was considering a lawsuit to
resolve the issue. Olberding says the conflict played a role in the delay.

“We need to resolve that quickly because, obviously, the
longer we can’t get utility work done, it’ll cause delays and cost
overruns,” she says. “So we want to get that done as soon as possible.”

Before the current spat, the city and Duke could not agree
on whether manhole covers and utility lines should be eight feet from
streetcar tracks or three to four feet. The city claimed the smaller
number was fine, but Duke disagreed, citing fears for its workers. In a
previous look at the issue, CityBeat found the city’s standard
was supported by experiences in other cities (“The Great Eight Debate,”
issue of March 6). The city eventually won out, and manholes will only be required to be three to four feet from streetcar tracks.

The streetcar has faced consistent opposition from other Republicans besides Kasich. U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot of Cincinnati successfully amended the 2013 transportation bill to ban federal funding from going to the streetcar and other light rail projects. Councilman Charlie Winburn, the lone Republican on Cincinnati City Council, said the city should stop its threat of lawsuit against Duke Energy.

Local Republicans criticize president's record on deficit in counter-rally

President Barack Obama announced a new trade action
against China during a Cincinnati campaign stop on Monday, where he also
took the opportunity to attack Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

The U.S. filed the case at the World Trade Organization on
Monday and claims that China offers “extensive subsidies” to native
automakers and auto-parts producers.

The Chinese government filed its own complaint before the
WTO on Monday, challenging tariffs the U.S. imposes on Chinese products
ranging from steel to tires. The tariffs are meant to protect American
manufacturers against what the U.S. government claims are unfair trade
practices by China.

“(The U.S. action is) against illegal subsidies that
encourage companies to ship auto part manufacturing jobs overseas,”
Obama said before an estimated crowd of 4,500 at the Seasongood Pavilion
in Eden Park. “These are subsidies that directly harm working men and
women on the assembly lines in Ohio and Michigan and across the
Midwest.”

“It’s not right, it’s against the rules, and we will not let it stand. American
workers build better products than anyone. ‘Made in America’ means
something. And when the playing field is level, America will always
win.”

Obama went on to criticize his Republican challenger,
saying Romney made his fortune in part by uprooting American jobs and
shipping them to China. Obama accused Romney — who has criticized
Obama’s foreign policy, saying the president apologizes for American
interests — of talking the talk without being able to walk the walk.

The Romney campaign countered with an email after the
rally, saying that Obama’s economic policies were hurting the private
sector and harmed manufacturing.

“As president, Mitt Romney will deliver a fresh start for
manufacturers by promoting trade that works for America and fiscal
policies that encourage investment, hiring and growth.”

The email pointed to reports from Bloomberg finding that manufacturing and production have shrunk recently.

Before the Obama rally several Ohio Republicans held a
news conference behind a Romney campaign bus near Eden Park, where they
focused more on the deficit than foreign trade.

U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot said it was “laughable” that
Obama considers himself a budget hawk. He pointed to the decline in
budget negotiations between the president and the Republican-controlled
House of Representatives, saying Obama “walked away” from talks with
Speaker John Boehner.

“Basically as president from that time last August until now, it’s been all politics,” Chabot said.

Chabot also attacked Obama on foreign policy, claiming the
president has left Israel hanging in the Middle East and is not serious
with Iran, who he says is on the brink of getting nuclear weapons.

The president in his speech said he did have a plan to
reduce the federal deficit, and would reduce it by $4 trillion over the
next 10 years without raising taxes on the middle class.

Monday’s visit to Cincinnati was Obama’s second of this
campaign and his 12th trip to Ohio this year. Romney has visited the
state 18 times during his campaign.

Obama was scheduled to fly to Columbus Monday afternoon for a campaign appearance there.